President Wins Tomato Accord For Floridians

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: October 12, 1996

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11—
Defusing a major political issue in Florida just weeks before the election, the Clinton Administration today pressured Mexico into an agreement that will set a minimum price for the tomatoes it ships to the United States, greatly easing pressure on the growers.

The deal satisfies both growers and government officials in one of the most hotly contested states in the Presidential election. For years Florida has been demanding protection from competition from roughly $800 million in tomatoes that come over the border annually.

Today's action, which seems likely to raise the price that consumers will pay this winter for tomatoes, was the latest in a series of efforts by the Administration to sidestep trade problems that could prove politically troublesome.

Early this year, for example, it delayed an opening of the Mexican border to Mexican trucks under the North American Free Trade Agreement, contending that the trucks were unsafe and a conduit for drugs. It also limited lumber imports from Canada. Both countries have periodically accused the United States of not living up to the spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and Mexico reiterated that complaint today.

The architect of these deals for the Administration was also one of President Clinton's closest political confidants, Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor. As Mr. Clinton's campaign manager in 1992 -- and, in recent weeks, his negotiator with Bob Dole's campaign over the ground rules for the Presidential debates -- Mr. Kantor is extraordinarily attuned to the politics of trade accords. And whether the issue is vine-ripened fruits or the shape of debating lecterns, Mr. Kantor is a relentless negotiator on Mr. Clinton's behalf.

Mr. Kantor was in Seattle today at a campaign appearance, and could not be reached for comment. But in a statement released in Washington, he said: ''The agreement will provide strong relief to the tomato growers in Florida and other states and help preserve jobs in the industry. Mexican growers will have continued access to the U.S. market, but only on fair terms.''

Others in the Administration put a harder political edge on Mr. Kantor's accomplishment. ''This was Mexico's moment to pay back for the bailout,'' one senior official said, referring to the Administration's decision to lend Mexico $12.5 billion to help it through a devastating financial crisis last year.

''The math was pretty simple,'' another official said. ''Florida has 25 electoral votes, and Mexico doesn't.''

It is unclear how much the tomato issue could affect swing votes in Florida, which has gone Republican in recent years but which now seems in play, with Mr. Clinton slightly ahead of Mr. Dole in the polls.

Tomatoes have been a bipartisan staple in Florida for some time. Democrats and Republicans have supported the Florida Department of Agriculture, which has spent more than $1.5 million to press the tomato-growers' complaints. But it is Mr. Clinton who can now assert that his Administration stemmed the annual wintertime flood of low-price, juicy Mexican tomatoes.

Technically, the tomato case centered on the question of whether Mexico, taking advantage of cheap labor that was made even cheaper after Mexico's financial crisis, is ''dumping'' roughly $800 million in tomatoes in the United States.

Dumping is the sale of products at prices below their cost, but determining that cost is often a matter of conflicting interpretation. The agreement reached today came after Mexican producers realized that the Commerce Department was just days away from a preliminary dumping ruling that could have put punitive tariffs or quantitative restrictions on tomato imports.

Under the accord reached today, Mexican farmers agree not to sell their tomatoes in the United States for less than 20.68 cents a pound -- the lowest average price of Mexican tomatoes for a period during which American officials say prices were not artificially suppressed by Mexican competition. The result of that accord, however, will probably be an increase in tomato prices this winter, when Florida and Mexico are virtually the sole suppliers of all the tomatoes Americans consume.

Florida's complaints about Mexican imports date to the late 1970's. But they have become more vociferous in recent years, partly because the 40 percent devaluation of the peso in early 1995 dramatically lowered the dollar price of Mexican tomatoes, and partly because Mexican growers had improved the shelf-life of their products, and, to the taste of some, had learned to produce juicier tomatoes.

Mr. Kantor has always been sympathetic to the Florida growers' complaints, even when it seemed as if Florida was firmly in the Republican column, but there is little question that his interest in the issue has been particularly strong this year.

Others have not been so sympathetic. The International Trade Commission ruled against the Florida growers twice in the past year, in separate cases that sought relief from what the growers called a ''surge'' in Mexican tomato imports. Mr. Kantor and his successor as the United States Trade Representative, Charlene Barshefsky, called the latest of those rulings ''disappointing.''

Then the growers attempted to get Congress to act, a movement led by Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat and a critic of the free trade agreement. That effort was also supported by Mr. Dole, but final legislation was never passed.

The Florida growers then filed a separate complaint with the Commerce Department, which rules on dumping cases, and finally seemed headed to victory. A preliminary finding was scheduled for release earlier this week, but decision was postponed after it became clear that the two sides were working toward an agreement that would set a minimum price for imports, in return for an agreement from the Commerce Department to suspend its investigation into dumping charges.

''It is a really effective agreement,'' said Howard Vine, a Washington lawyer who represented the Florida Department of Agriculture. ''It protects many in Florida, but it imposes a discipline in the domestic industry,'' forcing some tomato producers to become more efficient, he said.

Mexico's Commerce and Industry Ministry reiterated in a statement the ''concerns about the manner in which the United States authorities have carried out the anti-dumping investigation into Mexican tomatoes.''

''On several occasions,'' it said, ''Mexico has said that the investigation is incompatible with the disciplines established in the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

''As a result, Mexico reserves its right to continue using legal instruments available in these agreements to defend the interests of its exporters,'' the statement said.